Murder in the Pacific: Mt Yasur by Matt Francis

With Murder in the Pacific: Mount Yasur Matt Francis returns to Vanuatu and his police detective team of George Long and Jayline Oli. Murder in the Pacific: Ifira Point, winner of the 2024 Ned Kelly Award for Best Debut Crime Fiction, was set in the capital Port Vila. The sequel takes readers to the island of Tanna, home to the active volcano Mt Yasur. Much like the first book in the series, Francis uses the murder investigation to explore the culture of Tanna but also the pressures on modern Vanuatu.

The opening of Murder in the Pacific: My Yasur finds Sergeant George Long off duty, on the island of Tanna to attend the wedding of his unofficial offsider and friend Jayline Oli. Only Long is soon caught up in a tsunami evacuation, after which the body of Hu Lee, a Chinese aid worker, is found stabbed to death in his vehicle. Being on the spot, means that Long is soon ordered from on-high to take over the investigation and Oli, despite having to also deal with her own local politics of a Vanuatuan wedding, is keen to help. It turns out that plenty of people on the island had reason to want Lee dead and to complicate things further, Long finds out that the Chinese government is sending someone to the island to support the investigation.

Long, with his own Chinese heritage is always a little of an outsider, But he is also not always great with people. Oli on the other hand, has Vanuatuan heritage and is also more of a people person. So the two make a great investigative team. At the same time, given this is Oli’s wedding and Long is away from his new girlfriend, their personal lives are never far from the surface.

As with the first book in this series, the procedural element is used as a jumping off point to explore this part of Vanuatu, its local culture and environment. Francis takes readers to the markets, the guesthouses, and eventually to the edge of the volcano. But he also considers the lives of the islanders and the prospects for their children. As with the previous book, central to all of this is impact of foreign influence on the country and in this case the role of aid agencies and how they can be used by other governments as vectors of influence.

With a nod to Agatha Christie, Francis delivers another enjoyable and enlightening entry in his Murder in the Pacific series. And there is a promise of further volumes to come, with more of the country to explore and a great central duo to do it with.

Murder in the Pacific - Mt Yasur by Matt Francis

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